When the series finale of Line of Duty aired in 2021, 15 million viewers tuned in to see the action unfold, making the episode the most-watched hour of British TV drama in this century. So it wouldn’t take a keen detective to guess that the BBC series would rank high on the list of most popular British detective shows.
For this study, researchers at online.casino analyzed search volume for 90 shows from the past six decades, and sure enough, Line of Duty came out on top.
“Years later, it’s clear that people are still talking about the series, and this is what any crime drama aims towards,” a spokesperson for the site says. “Seeing long runners like Midsomer Murders alongside stand-alone series like Zen and River shows that the public’s appetite for drama is still going strong, and it’s interesting that of all the top 20 shows, nine of them have finished in the last seven years. It’s amazing to see shows that have been running for over twenty years can still get people talking, and we will have to wait and see if Line of Duty can be toppled.”
Here’s the full list.